Fraxus Week: Firsts
by writerkitty440
Summary: I didn't realize Fraxus Week started yesterday, so this is a day late. It will be a few chapters. First dates can be chances to make good impressions, or not.
1. Chapter 1

Freed leaned back in his chair and stretched. From the angle, he could see the inside of the umbrella on the table. It was two shades of blue and tattered, there was a wasp nest in it and half a tag stuck out of the stitching between the stripes.

"Still waiting for the other person?" a waitress asked quickly, in a high voice.

He fell back into a normal position and nodded. "Uh huh."

Although he wouldn't say it outright, he'd come to realize that whoever had written the note in his pocket wasn't coming. _Like someone loves me like that,_ he thought bitterly, feeling stupid for having fallen for such a dumb joke. The flowers he'd found at his doorstep were cheap- the heavily dyed kind that were always on twenty-percent-off sale at big grocery stores. That was probably because real bouquets were too expensive for pranks, but the note had been so sweet. Tucked into a ribbon around the outside of the wrapping, a little yellow envelope had caught his eye and inside it were such romantic misspelled words… Fake. Nearly an hour too late, he understood that it was all completely fake.

Outside the door to a busy café, Laxus took one more look at his uncomfortable, grumpy date. He was close to an hour late and the only condolence he'd brought was a wilted plant. There was no question how bad it would look to most people, but maybe Freed would forgive him. After all, it was an accident.

To distinguish himself as Freed's secret admirer, he'd written in his letter that he would bring a yellow flower, just like the envelope. The problem had been finding one. He'd planned on bringing a dandelion, but Evergreen had caught him as he was heading out and told him the hundred-and-one reasons it was the wrong plant. It would stain his clothes, be unromantic and a bunch of other stuff, but mostly, all the dandelions around had gotten fluffy, so they weren't really yellow anymore. That was why he'd taken an alternate route, by a place where there were a lot of wildflowers. It seemed like almost none of them were yellow though, and the ones that were blended in with the grass, too small to really be counted as flowers. After searching for a while, he finally found a yellow plant and was on his way, but because it was a different way than he normally took to get to that part of town, he took a couple wrong turns.

After that, things just started going downhill. First he realized he was going to be late. That was always bad. Freed knew he always got lost, and he didn't want to get laughed at on the first date. He'd been planning to do a better job than that, but sometimes things were easier said than done. Then the flower started wilting, not just a little bit, but a lot. It was on a long, leafy stem and had a bunch of little blossoms at the top that made little spike shapes, and deprived of water, it bent over and just looked like hell. Then, just a corner or two away from his destination, Laxus had gone through someplace with an awful lot of pollen. At least, that was what he assumed happened. Or maybe he just had a cold, but he was having allergy symptoms. It was especially odd since he wasn't allergic to anything.


	2. Chapter 2

Freed shooed a wasp away from his drink. The bugs were driving him crazy. It wasn't that he thought they were going to sting him, or that they were any nastier than the flies buzzing around all the other tables. He just hated having to move them every time he wanted to touch something on the table.

"Right this way," he heard the waitress say, not far away. Someone else was being seated and it was about time for him to just ask for the bill and leave. He looked over to see where the new group was going.

_Laxus,_ he thought. He couldn't believe who he saw. Walking over to his table, with a crushed yellow flower in his hand, was the thunder god himself.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, smiling and waving.

Freed was shocked. The immature, idiotic prank he'd been upset about only a moment ago had in fact, been an actual date. It was a really awesome date with someone so far out of his league…

"Oh no, it's not a problem! You're not that late!" He stood up and pulled out a chair to be polite.

Laxus gave him a confused look and sat down. "Alright…" It was only a second or two before the wasps noticed what he was carrying. "Here," he said, offering the flower to Freed before the insects could land on it.

Goldenrod. Of all the yellow flowers in the world, it had to be goldenrod that had been growing on the detour route. The pollen-coated, bug-attracting weed that made everyone sneeze, allergic or not… Pretending not to notice the plant's condition, he accepted the flower with a smile and a suffocating, awkward embrace.

"You're so sweet," he cooed, rubbing his head against Laxus' neck. Laxus winced and didn't say anything. When Freed was finished, he leaned in, making a goofy, lovestruck face and asked, "Can I move my chair to sit closer?"

Laxus almost took the chance to protest, but he couldn't get the words together. In the blink of an eye, the other chair was only a few inches away. On second thought, maybe it was a good idea to yield on this one. After all, too much waiting could make a person a little upset, and the last thing Laxus wanted to do was act insensitive after everything else.

"Did you order anything yet?" It wasn't the best question. Judging by the half-empty milkshake glass across the table, Freed had made it to desert before he'd arrived. Nevertheless, there was a polite and considerate answer and another hug for him, just for the heck of it. "You know, you don't have to hug me."

Until they were almost ready to go, it was more or less the same. The conversation went nowhere and Laxus didn't know what to say or do, but Freed was completely ecstatic just to be on a date with him.

"Maybe we could do a job together, like this, sometime…" Laxus suggested, pushing Freed back into his chair.

Still determined to cuddle, Freed ignored the obvious message and resisted Laxus' efforts to put space between them. "What do you mean? We work together all the time." While his voice didn't show much emotion, the rest of him did, desperately fighting the force applied by a stronger, larger person who wanted him off. Some other customers at the café were beginning to giggle at the sight, and Laxus pushed harder.

"Um, I meant _just_ us! It might be nice…" With a final shove, he sent Freed finally falling back into his seat. In the final moment before he landed, Laxus noticed something yellow between Freed and the chair cushion.

"Ah!" The flower was almost as crushed as the wasps that had landed on it while it was on the side of the chair for safekeeping, then the middle as a vacancy opened up and gravity did its thing.

"Sorry!" How many strikes was that? Laxus was starting to feel kind of bad about how the whole date was going. Late, with a dead flower, rude, and seemingly, the reason why Freed just got stung somewhere… It wasn't worth dwelling on, but it was an awful lot different from what he'd been planning.

"Don't worry, the stinger just poked me a little." Freed leaned over the table and tried to brush the bug guts off his butt as discreetly as possible. "No stings!"

Romantic just wasn't the word this date at all. It was no different from being out with a friend except for all of the suffocating physical contact. "Let me help," Laxus offered, already reaching out to do so. All he could do was hope the mood would change soon.

Freed shook his head and sat down in his lap. That, at least, was new. "Can we go somewhere else soon?" He looked up with puppy dog eyes.

Laxus stuttered. "Uh- um… We can go for a walk, somewhere."


End file.
